HAIRY GRAMA
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File Size: 62 KB |
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Bouteloua hirsuta
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Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
Perennial |
Height: 6 to 28 inches |
Family: Poaceae - Grass Family |
Flowering Period: June, July, August |
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Culms: | | Erect to somewhat bent below, solid, glabrous, leafy at bases. | Blades: | | Numerous, flat, slender, 1 to 7 inches long, less than 1/10 inch wide, erect or ascending, rough or glabrous; lower margins with hairs arising from tiny bumps. | Sheaths: | | Glabrous or finely hairy, bearing long soft hairs near ligule. | Ligules: | | Short fringes of hairs. | Inflorescences: | | Panicles; branches 1 to 4, .5 1.5 inches long, occasionally curved; rachis extending conspicuously beyond spikelets in obvious point. | Spikelets: | | 18-50 per branch, .25 inch long, crowded in 2 rows; florets 1 perfect, 2 sterile; glumes unequal, tipped with blackish awns, second glume hairy; fertile lemma deeply 3-cleft, hairy, 3 short awns, central awn longest. | Habitat: | | Prairies or pastures, on dry, shallow, sandy or rocky sites. | Distribution: | | Throughout Kansas | Forage Value: | | Hairy grama is nutritious for livestock and has high palatability late in the growing season. | Comments: | | Hairy grama grows in tufts but does not occur in large stands. | | | Hairy grama can be distinguished from blue grama by the needle-like rachis that projects beyond the spikelet-bearing portion of the branch. |
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Hairy grama inflorescence | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama4.jpg) | 67 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama spikelets | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama5.jpg) | 67 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama6.jpg) | 179 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama.jpg) | 137 KB | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama13.jpg) | 62 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama12.jpg) | 37 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama10.jpg) | 48 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama15.jpg) | 52 KB | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama16.jpg) | 172 KB | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| Inflorescences | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama7.jpg) | 80 KB | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama22.jpg) | 71 KB | Riley County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama24.jpg) | 205 KB | Riley County, Kansas |
| Hairy grama habit | ![](thumbnails/hairygrama20.jpg) | 152 KB | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
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